What to expect? Tread lightly if you're looking for practical fashion help. Zoe's recent recommendations include a $2,400 capelet from designer Prabal Gurung, $525 sunglasses and -- at the ridiculous price of $295 -- shredded t-shirts. Don't look for these items at the local mall, though Zoe does get points for including links to (somewhat) cheaper alternatives.

Have these women never heard of Etsy or dozens of other moderately-priced Internet stockers of indie haute stuff?

Thus far, a fashion coffee table book -- Scott Schuman's "The Sartorialist" -- is the sole lifestyle recommendation. But if Zoe's reality show is any indication, recommendations for profligate spending, annoying assistants and a surgically attached Starbucks lattes likely loom on the editorial calendar.

A $295 shredded t-shirt is bad, true, but I can't count the number of times the Style section on Sunday has babbled on about "cutting back in a recession" with "cheap" clothes and then featured ten pairs of jeans priced between $100 - $200.

I say because she is a fashion "icon" she is fair game to critique.
Hair = a very bad style
Fur = politically incorrect and ugly
Dress = looks like something my grandmother wore in the 1970's
I would think an outfit like that would reduce her street cred in the fashion world a great deal.

I love Etsy. I love it so much that I don't want celebs and *ahem* fashion icons to come in and mess everything up. It's like when you used to follow a cool relatively unknown indie band and then you stop going to their concerts because you don't want to fight through the throngs of screaming teenage fangirls.

The GOOP newsletter is amusing because it's a peek inside the thoughts of an insanely privileged woman who doesn't recognize exactly how privileged she is and has been. (Her godfather is Steven Spielberg, for God's sake.) Gwyneth Paltrow really thinks she's contributing tips that are affordable and usable to the average reader's lifestyle. (Though, yeah, okay, some of the recipes she provides - either hers or her acquaintances = look worth attempting, I'll give her that.)

If Rachel Zoe has a newsletter, it's just a way to expand upon her personal brand. Nothing wrong with that in this day and age, but since I could give a cr@p about her brand and style, then it doesn't have a smidgen of the unintentional irony of a GOOP newsletter. And that's what makes GOOP amusing and widely read.

"As with most beautifully produced volumes, I recommend displaying The Sartorialist out in the open, it will instantly add an element of style to any space. Also, it’s the perfect size to carry on a plane—jet set inspiration!"

Or this--

"If you can get the visual of me as a tween, skating at the roller rink in red satin pants, a spandex tube top and gold headband, you’ll know why I’m so obsessed over these shades....Barton Perreira Starlet Sunglasses ($525)"

To her credit, she offers us a "parallel universe" option, American Apparel glasses at $50.

"As with most beautifully produced volumes, I recommend displaying The Sartorialist out in the open, it will instantly add an element of style to any space. Also, it’s the perfect size to carry on a plane—jet set inspiration!"
**************************
I bet she has faux books lining the shelves in her pad to give the illusion of being studious and well-read.

Or this--

"If you can get the visual of me as a tween, skating at the roller rink in red satin pants, a spandex tube top and gold headband, you’ll know why I’m so obsessed over these shades....Barton Perreira Starlet Sunglasses ($525)"